


nothing I can say (to change that part)

by magicandlight



Series: The States [18]
Category: Hetalia: Axis Powers, Statetalia
Genre: American Civil War, Brother-Sister Relationships, Civil War, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-24
Updated: 2020-03-24
Packaged: 2021-02-28 20:55:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,449
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23293606
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/magicandlight/pseuds/magicandlight
Summary: "What are they fighting over?" He asks Aidan when the older states don't stop fighting for days.Aidan looks down at him, but doesn't quite meet his eyes. "They're trying to decide whether they should find the new territory or leave them until the war is over."
Relationships: Idaho & Montana (Hetalia)
Series: The States [18]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/788712
Kudos: 17





	nothing I can say (to change that part)

**Author's Note:**

> someone requested I identify the states in a fic so the important ones here are: Helena-Montana, Jake-Idaho, Aidan-Washington, Riley-Indiana, Cass-Illinois, and Charlie-Oregon.

The states are arguing again.

Jake wishes Charlie was still here, because Charlie always knew what to do. But Charlie was away helping other people, and Jake couldn't go with her because he was too little.

Charlie was one of the few people in this house that never felt like a stranger.

***

"What are they fighting over?" He asks Aidan when they don't stop for days.

Aidan looks down at him, but doesn't quite meet his eyes. "They're trying to decide whether they should find the new territory or leave them until the war is over."

Jake frowns. "We can't just leave them by themselves."

Aidan shifts uncomfortably. "It might be better than being here- seeing all this-" His gesture encompasses the entire house, the blood that has to be scrubbed off the floor and the war and the pain. "This isn't much of a place for a child to grow up in."

"I'm here," Jake says.

Aidan looks away. "...Yeah, Jake, we know."

***

Anna and Kit and Jules are the same age as Nate and Marisol, so Jake doesn't get why they aren't allowed to fight but Nate and Marisol are. And he's only a year younger than Nate and Marisol, and he doesn't get why they can fight but he couldn't go with Charlie. Riley says it's complicated.

Riley never gives real answers. It makes Jake miss Charlie more. Charlie would tell him why.

"What's the new territory's name?" Jake asks. Riley's only taking things off the clothesline, so he's not really busy.

Riley yanks a sheet off a little too roughly, turning to face Jake. "Who told you about that?" He asks sharply.

Jake doesn't answer. Riley sighs.

"Montana." Riley closes his eyes. "Their name is Montana."

***

The states are arguing again, and this time Del's voice carries upstairs when she tells someone that Alfred would be disappointed in them.

***

It isn't fair, but then nothing about this entire situation is fair.

Alfred is too delirious and sick to even remember how many new states he has half the time. Jake doesn't know the southern states, the ones who are supposed to be his family but left before he was born. The originals are too busy holding the north together and dealing with their own problems to worry about him. Riley and Cass already had their family. Anna and Kit had each other. Aidan was just looking out for him because Charlie had asked. 

Charlie was his family, but now she's gone too. 

***

Aidan is gone for a while, and no one will tell Jake why, not even when he screams at Riley. 

Cass tells him to stop yelling, and Jake does, because Cass is Cass.

Jake accepts that Aidan has probably left the same way Charlie did. He swallows the bitterness.

When Aidan does come back, he comes back with a girl clinging to his hand.

***

Montana doesn't have a name other than Montana for three weeks after she comes home because Alfred is too out of it to pick her name and none of the states want to take it from Alfred. 

But Alfred shows no sign of being lucid anytime soon, so Cordelia caves.

***

Her name is Helena, and she has the bluest eyes Jake's ever seen, except for possibly Alfred's (or Brooke's).

"She's so _little._ "

Riley gives him a look like _what did you expect?_ "She's six-ish, I think. Cass says seven."

Jake's only ten himself, but Helena seems awfully small, maybe because she's a whole foot shorter or because Jake's never been around human children.

***

Sometimes, when it's too loud, Jake goes and sits in the woods for a while. 

After a few times, Del had reluctantly agreed since Jake doesn't get lost, on the condition that he did not go past where the property line was marked. 

Aidan doesn't usually come out to get him, just waits for him to come back, so Jake is used to being able to climb up into a tree and read in peace.

So he jumps, almost falling off the branch when someone starts talking. 

"Are you running away?" 

Jake frowns down at Helena. "No. How'd you know where I was?"

She shrugs. "I'm good at finding things." Helena frowns, looking down at her feet. "Are you going to come back?"

Jake snorts. "While they're all arguing? Nope. Go home, Helena."

Helena's lip wobbles. "I don't want to," she whines.

Jake bites his tongue before he can snap at her. After all, he doesn't like it when the older states argue, and he's older than Helena. 

He can't be mad that she doesn't want to go home. 

Jake sighs. "Can you get up here by yourself or do you need-" Helena scrambles up onto the first branch before he even finishes. "Well, I guess you don't need help."

***

He lets Helena worm her way into his bed that night since the states are still arguing about strategies and who's going to do what and where they're going to go. 

She buries her face in his shoulder. Jake wonders if it's so she can't hear them arguing. 

***

Jake rolls his eyes. "Just jump, stop being a baby."

Helena sticks her tongue out at him, but she sits down on the branch of the tree instead of climbing down any further. 

She jumps, and Jake winces when she lands wrong and goes sprawling. 

"You okay, 'Lena?"

"My leg hurts," She whines, and Jake knows that she's about to start crying. 

Her leg is scraped from knee to ankle, bloody and raw-looking enough that Jake doesn't tell her to get over it. 

"Here, I'll carry you," he murmurs, allowing Helena to climb on his back. 

Riley goes a little pale at the sight of the blood coating Helena's shin, only relaxing when Cass runs to wake up Connie. 

Helena cries when the disinfectant is poured over her leg, and when Connie has to pick out a few little pebbles, and then some more when more disinfectant is poured on it. 

Riley is furious with him. "She's little, Jake, you can't bully her into doing things she's too small for."

Jake's eyes burn. "I didn't mean to get her hurt."

"Well, you did." Riley bites out. 

Cass lays a hand on Jake's head. " _Riley_." She hisses. "Don't you dare."

Riley sighs and drags a hand roughly through his hair before turning to leave. 

Cass leans down so she's at Jake's height. "You know, my brothers got me hurt plenty of times growing up. Tyler nearly got Mindy drowned one time, don't take this so hard," she whispers so quietly he's the only one that can hear her, and then she leaves too. 

***

"They're children," Kendall says, loudly, and they look at each other. Anna and Kit are the first ones to shuffle closer to the banister to hear what's going on downstairs. 

Helena's brows scrunch up, and she opens her mouth. Jake covers it with his hand, holding a finger over his mouth to tell her to be quiet. He takes his hand back, scooting closer to the twins so he can hear too. 

"They don't belong in this mess. We should have left them where they were. There was nothing we could do about Emily or the twins-"

Kit flinches. 

"But we could have left Marisol. Jake. Helena. They didn't need to be apart of this!"

"Easy for you to fucking say." There's Brooke. "You ever starve, Kendall? Ever been homeless? And say we had left them. You'd rather Marisol be with the fucking Confederacy? Our dear old uncle Jackson? Slicing off fingers over there and god knows what else?"

"What's your boyfriend- _my brother_ \- saying about life over there? All sunshine and rainbows?" Cordelia sounds nothing like their sister that lets them sneak candy bars from Will's stash. 

Jake glances back, and Helena's gone. 

***

It takes him an hour to find her again. 

"This is a really good hiding place," Jake tells Helena solemnly, crouched beside the bed. 

"Go away." Helena sniffles again. Hiccups. 

"Nope. What's wrong with you?"

Silence. Then: "They didn't _want_ me." 

He can't tell her they did, because that's not quite true, is it?

Jake crawls under the bed beside her. "I want you."

"Why?" Helena sniffles. "You always say that I'm a baby and tell me to go away."

"Because you're my sister," Jake says, knowing it's true even if he hadn't thought about it before. "I love you," he says, the never-said-before words awkward on his tongue. 

Charlie had told him that she loved him, sometimes. He'd never said it back. 

She left him, though, so _I love you_ wasn't the important part. 

"I want you here," Jake repeats, instead.

**Author's Note:**

> Note: Jake is not misgendering Charlie, this is prior to them coming out as genderfluid.  
> This is set towards the end of the civil war. Helena was created May 26, 1864, a little under a year before the end of the civil war. She's about sixish in human years and Jake is around ten for the duration of this fic.


End file.
